If you’re looking to attract cannabis investors, then ask yourself this – What is your company’s mission? That’s the first thing you need to know.
Because it’s going to be next to impossible to find investors if you don’t have a mission. Strangely enough, they’re just not willing to throw money at a fly-by-night notion.
Getting a cannabis business up and running is no cake walk. Keeping it running until it’s profitable is even more challenging. That’s why you need funding.
So if you know your mission and you’ve got vision, passion and drive, how can you attract investors to supply that funding?
Media is a great place to start.
It Is Tough to Attract Cannabis Investors
Running a cannabis business means performing complicated daily operations while staying on top of a plethora of regulations. It can feel like captaining the Titanic.
In other words, investors know this is a high risk game.
So then how do you spark their interest and gain their trust with so many icebergs looming? Through the clever use of media. That’s how. Here’s what you do:
Establish Yourself As a Thought Leader
Yeah, we know “thought leader” is one of those phrases that’s “trending.” You might even be rolling your eyes. But thought leaders are the folks that keep media ticking.
A thought leader is like the Grand Puba of expertise. It’s the person who can prove himself or herself as an authority on a topic, industry or field of study. This person becomes the go-to guy or gal when there is need to create or guide an industry conversation. And investors like them. Because, you guessed it, they’re a much safer bet.
Thus, you want to establish yourself as one. But how?
Get to Writing
No need to get up on a soap box, prosthelytizing to the masses your great wisdom. The best way to get your voice and opinions recognized is to start putting them out there in writing. Regularly post to your company blog with high quality content like articles or white papers that demonstrate your expertise.
Though some may consider them old school, press releases continue to be a simple way to raise awareness. Also, take advantage of company feature stories.
A feature story is an informational article about your company that would appear in a quality publication that relates to the cannabis industry. Begin by asking yourself, what are the pressing issues and trends in the cannabis industry? Then consider what your company is doing to address those trends or issues.
Once you’ve let those ideas percolate for a bit, come up with a list of respected publications that might be interested in this potential story. Before writing your story, reach out to the site or publication’s editor and tell the why your feature story would be a good fit and see if they’re interested in publishing it.
Company features are a really effective way to establish you as a thought leader while helping to build reputational capital.
Take Advantage of Social Media
You’ll want to put anything that you publish or have published on social media too. Then continue to use various platforms to interact with the cannabis community online.
Each platform has its own rules about cannabis related posts. Because, you know, marijuana is still federally illegal.
So tread carefully with platforms like Twitter and Instagram, who will likely pull down your post if it smacks of promoting cannabis. Even Facebook can be a bit stodgy in this arena. So you’ll need to cater to each of these platform’s requirements.
For example, shoot over to Facebook if your content is more entertaining but still relevant to your brand identity. If you want to engage more in industry conversation, Twitter serves this role well.
As for driving it to the hoop to find a cannabis investor, LinkedIn is probably your best bet. It’s one of the best ways to build business contacts and stay abreast of what’s happening in the cannabis industry. Plus, since your profile serves as a sort of resumé, it’s in your best interest to keep it updated and include all relevant accomplishments.
Boost Your Media Efforts
Finding investors is one of the most difficult aspects of starting and running a business. In an industry where the product is federally prohibited, the challenges to attract a cannabis investor are exacerbated.
If you want some advice on how to boost your media efforts, consult with us today. And see why our cannabis clients continue to thrive.